THE BANQUET

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4). In the parable of the Prodigal Son the father’s joy could not be complete until he was sitting in the banqueting hall with his son. He had to make sure the boy knew he was forgiven and his sin wiped out. They had to be sitting at the table—feasting on the lamb!

If you had looked in the window at that moment, you would have seen a young man who had just come into a true revelation of God’s love: He was dancing! There was music, and he was laughing and happy. His father was glad over him, smiling at him! (Luke 15:25)

He was not under a cloud of fear. He wasn’t listening to the old lies of the enemy: “You’re going to go right back to the pigpen! You are unworthy of such love . . . .” No, he accepted his father’s forgiveness and had obeyed his word to come in and take for himself all he needed.

He heard his father whisper to him and to his older brother, “All I have is yours. There is no need ever to be hungry again. You never need to be lonely, a pauper, cut off from My storehouse” (Luke 15:31).

Beloved, here is the fullness of God’s love, the very heart of it! It is that even in our darkest times, God not only embraces us and brings us back in, but He also says, “Bring forth the fatted calf, and let us eat and be merry! In My banqueting house, there is a feast of plenty for my loved one!” (see Luke 15:22-24).

Today we have an even better promise: “To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:19-20).

Here is God’s love promise to us: “I offer you exceeding, abundant fullness—provision for every crisis, joy throughout your entire life. You may go to the storehouse and claim it all!”